Posts Tagged ‘Heavy Duty’

9V GP Powercell Heavy Duty Carbon Zinc Battery Test

29, Mar 2019

We are not big fans of Carbon Zinc single use batteries as a cheaper alternative to alkaline batteries, but from time to time we still pick up some cells to test and reaffirm that we do not like them. Carbon Zinc batteries are designed to be used on devices with smaller power consumption and they do not offer as much capacity as their alkaline counterparts, but they do come cheap and are widely available in various stores. We are giving the 9V GP Powercell Heavy Duty another chance as we have tried to test one of these a couple of years ago, but it has arrived with at the end of its shelf life. The one we received this time is slightly fresher with 10-2019 expiration date, so this time with half a year left of its shelf life we have decided to include it in our test results.


As expected the 9V GP Powercell Heavy Duty Carbon Zinc battery did not do much better than our previous try, it has managed to give out just 32 mAh capacity at our constant discharge test with 0.05A. The previous test of expiring 9V GP Powercell Heavy Duty battery with just one month left was a bit better with 38 mAh, but this can be a result of different storage conditions. Anyway, we warn you once again to be careful when buying Carbon Zinc batteries to always check the expiration date and always go for fresh ones (never buy these online if the expiration date is not stated!), or better yet – go for alkaline batteries instead.

The performance of the 9V GP Powercell Heavy Duty Carbon Zinc batteries in our tests:

– 32 mAh at 0.05A load

– 0.234 Wh at 0.05A load

9V Toshiba Heavy Duty Carbon Zinc Battery Tests

29, Nov 2013

9v-toshiba-heavy-duty-battery

The 9V Toshiba Heavy Duty batteries we are testing here are essentially lower capacity Zinc batteries, even though they are not labeled as such the Heavy Duty in the name points exactly to that along with the lack of Alkaline anywhere written on the battery. These batteries are often found in supermarkets for example and are relatively cheap, so you can often make a mistake of taking them if you need a 9V battery for some device. And while nowadays 9V batteries are not so commonly used, there are still a lot of devices that need them and it is a wise idea to spend your money on something better that will last longer. The particular battery we are testing here is with an expiration date of 01-2016 and according to Toshiba these batteries are suitable for slightly heavy duty to light duty applications such as flashlights, radio cassette recorders and clocks.


9v-toshiba-heavy-duty-battery-capacity

In order to test the capacity of the 9V Toshiba Heavy Duty batteries we are using a constant current discharge rate of 0.05A (50 miliampers) and we have managed to get just 4 mAh out of the Toshiba battery. No, that is not a mistake, it simply means that our test discharge current seems to be a bit higher for these batteries and they simply cannot handle it well. So much for recommending these over any other Zinc batteries as we usually should get about 100-150 mAh as useable capacity in our test scenario under these conditions. In fact we have managed to get more useable capacity out of a Carbon Zinc battery that has expired already than what this new Toshiba battery has managed to provide. At a lower loads the battery should probably handle better and be able to provide higher useable capacity, however that does not make it things any better – in short we are very disappointed from the result.

The performance of the 9V Toshiba Heavy Duty batteries in our tests:

– 4 mAh at 0.05A load

– 0.030 Wh at 0.05A load


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